Women’s Tennis Can’t Shake Off Rust at Cornell
The women’s tennis team started the season on a double-fault last weekend at the Cornell Invitational. Eight players participated in singles events and two teams played in the doubles matches. Sophomores Samantha Inacker and Elise DeRose competed in Flight A Singles. While Inacker lost to Suasan Ma of Albany in the first day of matches, DeRose beat Rei Kinoshita of Cornell, sweeping her in two sets 6-5, 6-1. She lost in the next round on Saturday to Christina Clemont of Temple in two sets 7-5, 6-3. Inacker competed in the consolation round, but only picked up two wins in the bracket. She went on to defeat Lehigh’s Julie Arthofer, 8-3 and Niagara’s Vanja Lakic, 8-4, before losing to Sarah Giles-Madden of Army in the semifinals. In Flight B Singles action, first-year Stephanie Bender lost to Melissa Orteza of Cornell 6-2 and 6-1.
Three Raiders played in the Flight C Singles section, but none were able to achieve consistent success. First-years Alexi Aberant and Jen Marquit dropped their respective matches as did sophomore Jackie Stimmel. However, Stimmel came back to play in the final of the consolation bracket, where she defeated Army’s Birdie Burke, 8-5 and Niagara’s Victoria Tiso, 8-4. Furthermore, Marquit rebounded from her earlier loss to pick up a victory in the consolation bracket, topping Lehigh’s Kira Murasko-Blank, 8-6.
The Colgate Raiders sent two players to the Flight D Singles bracket. Sophomore Ryan Dewey lost to Melissa Coughlin of Albany 6-0, 6-4. Senior Lauren Levy lost to Teresa Strong of Temple, 6-1, 6-2.
In the doubles portion, the team of Inacker and DeRose advanced from the round of 16 beating an Albany tandem, but ultimately lost to Cornell in the next round.
After last season, when the Raiders posted a 3-1 league mark to finish second in the Patriot League, the bar was set pretty high for this year and there is no doubt that the team has a chip on their shoulder heading into week two. The Raiders will travel to West Point, NY from September 14-16 to compete in the Army Invitational Tournament.
